A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [225]
4 cups pecan halves
2 large egg whites, beaten until frothy with 3 tablespoons cold water
1½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon black pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 250° F. Spritz a large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray or, if you prefer, use a nonstick baking sheet. Set the pan aside.
2. Dip the pecans, about half of the total amount at a time, in the beaten egg whites, then place in a large sieve to drain. Meanwhile, combine all remaining ingredients and divide between two large plastic zipper bags.
3. Shake the pecans briskly in the sieve to drain off the excess beaten egg whites, then place half of them in each of the zipper bags of spiced sugar, seal, and shake well to coat.
4. Spread the pecans on the baking sheet and bake on the middle oven shelf for 15 minutes. Stir well and again spread the pecans on the baking sheet.
5. Reduce the oven temperature to 200° F. and bake the pecans 2 hours longer or until glistening and richly browned, stirring and spreading every half hour or so.
6. Remove the pecans from the oven, break apart, spread on a clean baking sheet, and let stand at room temperature for at least an hour or until crisp and dry. Note: Stored in an airtight container, these spiced pecans will keep “fresh” for several weeks.
Four states claim pecan pie for their own—Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia. I have eaten this incarnate richness in each…my choice goes to the Georgia pie.
—CLEMENTINE PADDLEFORD, HOW AMERICA EATS
Pickles and Preserves
Right up until World War Two (perhaps I should say until war’s end), many southern cookbooks devoted almost as many pages to food preservation as they did to food preparation. Occasionally even more. There’s good reason for this.
The South is hot six to eight months out of twelve (year-round in South Florida); therefore, conserving food safely was every cook’s preoccupation before home freezers revolutionized their lives. So was “putting food by” for the family to enjoy in fallow winter months. Because the South was largely agricultural, food was “home-grown.” And that meant meat and dairy as well as fruits and vegetables.
I find the scope of food conservation in The Receipt Book of Harriott Pinckney Horry, 1770, breathtaking. This South Carolina plantation matron teaches not only how “to keep tomatoes for winter use” but also how to extend the shelf life of butter as much as a month by adding a finely pounded blend of salt, sugar, and saltpeter: one ounce per pound of butter. There are also directions on how “to preserve small green oranges” and “dry peaches” plus something I’ve never heard of: “To Mango Muskmellons or Cucumbers”—basically brining and pickling with garlic, horseradish, ginger, and mustard seeds.
I’m not so sure about the “mango-ing,” but Horry’s walnut “catchup” and mushroom “catchup” are recipes I’d like to try. The second comes from her mother, Eliza Lucas Pinckney, as does this recipe for Mushroom Powder:
Take 4 lb. Mushrooms that have been squeez’d and dry them with a little spice [possibly allspice, nutmeg or mace, and black pepper] in the Sun or Oven, and Powder them for Made Dishes.
Note: For more on this influential mother and daughter, see box, Chapter 7.
Mary Randolph (The Virginia Housewife, 1824) tells her readers how to cure bacon, beef, and herring. She also offers a recipe for oyster “catsup,” which, she says, “…gives a fine flavour to white sauces, and if a glass of brandy be added, it will keep good for considerable time.”
Randolph